Wednesday, July 22, 2009

there is still hope yet..

It was about 11 o clock in the night and I was returning back home after watching a movie at phoenix. I was in a taxi and it was drizzling slighlty and the taxi was going at a slow pace. A few metres ahead of me, I saw a guy starting his motorcycle and coming out on to the road but to my alarm saw that he had not released the stand of the bike. Having seen an accident happen due to the same reason a couple of years earlier, I was suddenly scared for this guy. I knew that the road ahead had lot of potholes and the moment the guy goes past by a pothole, the stand was going to get stuck and he would fall.
My taxidriver was an old chap (who I am sure was suffering from nightblindness!) and in spite of my repeated requests to speed up and catch up with the guy on the bike, he could not drive fast enough to catch up. My repeated requests to go fast was no doubt making him upset. Ahead, a turning was coming up and I prepared myself to watch what I was dreading would come true….
Then I saw those 2 guys…they looked like your local ruffian sort of guys, whom you will identify as faces which you would see in every nook and corner of busy & crowded areas in any town; guys loitering around without having any work & sense of purpose, mostly drunk all the time, passing comments on women passing by – the standard rowdy acts. They were coming out from a paan shop and then looking to cross the road and saw the guy on the bike approaching…and as I watched, both of them gesticulated wildly with their hands to the biker signaling to him that he had not released the stand of the bike. As soon as they did this, the biker passed by these guys and then slowed down to release the stand and then (not looking back because the road ahead was dimly lit) raised his hand to wave in acknowledgement, in thanks, to these two guys. He waved once, then did a thumbs up and then waved again….and sitting in the car, seeing this scene being played out in front of me, a smile crossed my face & the thought crossed my mind “There is still hope yet….and there is a little bit of goodness in everybody!!”
And then I told my driver..”kaka, abhi aap slow chalao….chalega!”